Romo claims Cowboys will have a potent offence in 2010
If you ask Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, he will tell you that his offensive unit will do great things in the 2010 season. He doesn’t doubt it, not for a second. And why should he? The Cowboys can challenge the New Orleans Saints for the right to call themselves the league’s best offence this upcoming season.
Dallas has a three-back rotation lead by Marion Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice. This is a team that is loaded at the receiving position with Miles Austin, Roy Williams, Patrick Clayton and rookie Dez Bryant. They also have the number two tight end in the NFL in Jason Witten and Romo is coming off his best season as a pro. How is that for offensive unit?
"I think we're going to have a pretty good red-zone offence this year. I think we're going to have a good offence, period. It's going to be fun."
But how much fun is the offence really having? After two pre-season games, the Cowboys have only mustered a total of 25 points in two pre-season games and one touchdown.
Although they left Canton, Ohio, with a 16-7 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in their first match, the Cowboys’ red-zone woes continued from last year, as they were unable to punch the ball in from a few yards out. Part of the problem this pre-season has been their ability to score touchdowns.
"So we're doing some good things," Romo said. "But scoring touchdowns obviously helps a lot and matters. From a confidence standpoint, there's no question we need to get in the end zone. And we will."
In their last preseason game against the Raiders, the Cowboys settled for three field goals. Keeping in mind that this is preseason and that the starting offence only saw a handful of plays, it is still disturbing for a team of such talent and depth on the offensive side of the ball to settle for nine points against Oakland’s defence that is mediocre at best.
With the exception of Bryant, this is virtually the same offence as in 2009. "When you look at it, everything we did last year, there's a lot of correctable things out there," Romo said. "It's not that we need to go out and find someone who is a better football player. Sometimes that's part of it, but we don't have that problem.”
No, the problem is about finishing drives and learning the schemes and system that is in place according to Romo, who's entering his fourth full season as a starter. "You get better command of the offence every year that goes by," said Romo. "Me and Jason [Garrett, the offensive coordinator], grew together in the system. That's a good thing. I'm lucky to have somebody there for an extended period of time like that."
But the addition of Bryant has folks in Dallas excited about the production that this young man can contribute to this team. "He's got good instincts," Romo said of the rookie. "He's got a natural way about running the routes and being in position. He's still got some stuff to learn that we've got to get through, but he's coming along. ... He had a lot of time, he had a lot of work in, and he corrected a lot of mistakes pretty quickly there. But there are still things we're going to continue to work on."
On paper, the Cowboys look poised to play in the Super Bowl, which will be played in their stadium this year. If this is the case, the Cowboys would be the first team in NFL history to host the Super Bowl in their city and play in the championship game.
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